Post AxSJhjPNKEmBOcbcEC by glyph@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by glyph@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AxSJhe8WvRKZ2vgamG by glyph@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T04:45:01Z
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I have never worried about the singularity because I had a single conversation in 2007 with a guy who worked in a chip fab, and learned just the tiniest bit about the physical, mechanical process that goes into actually manufacturing a microprocessor, and how much of it requires direct intervention of human hands despite everyone involved in the process having wanted to automate it all since 1980
(DIR) Post #AxSJhjPNKEmBOcbcEC by glyph@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T04:47:33Z
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literally nothing that anyone involved with AI on any level has said in the intervening decades has shaken my ironclad conviction that we are a hundred years out from a skynet-style self-sustaining AI situation. if the alignment-bro apocalyptic scenario were to take place, where suddenly there was market demand for an unlimited supply of chips to power an infinite army of self-sustaining killer robots, the folks in the fabs would say "nevermind, no thanks" and just go home
(DIR) Post #AxSJhoiLb7vHquWKzg by glyph@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T04:50:09Z
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okay, great, you robotically automate 100% of the actual tracing/doping/lidding process, put some T1000s on the line to solder the pins into motherboards. what does your rare-earth supply chain look like? are you sending robots out to the congo to work in the mines? who is cleaning the dust out of their actuators? what happens when there are a few cloudy days and their self-sustaining solar power supplies fail. what happens when their onboard lithium batteries turn into spicy pillows
(DIR) Post #AxSJhuGYxLGN4TZEWG by glyph@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T04:51:24Z
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the giant hideous machine that constitutes our modern torment nexus is made out of people. not like "mostly" made out of people, not like a corporation is kind of like a killer robot but a killer robot might do similar things without human guidance; you need the *entire* system of humanity focused on producing these outcomes, and "value alignment" style ethical research is, if you will pardon the expression, a completely fucking stupid way to look at it all
(DIR) Post #AxSJhzpUGvAcKEwh9M by glyph@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T04:52:58Z
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people gather into factions, classes have class interests, systems incentivize behaviors which create conflict. there is no such thing as a "human-aligned" value or RFK Jr could not exist as a human being. humans do not agree on things and the robots they operate cannot realistically optimize for paperclips unless there is a publicly-traded paperclip company under pressure from shareholders. the nature of robots is that they will stop making paperclips the moment the market does not demand them
(DIR) Post #AxSJi7T5s40k16WvM8 by glyph@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T05:00:05Z
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a lot of misallocation of resources could be stopped if more people understood the difference between a "performing a rigorous thought experiment" and "fantasizing about some cool cyberpunk shit"
(DIR) Post #AxTHCVr3f4pndKV4S0 by jwz@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T09:48:12Z
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@glyph So I appreciate this notion that the paperclip optimizer cannot exist without coopting human fingers into bending paperclips, but OTOH there are a lot of people in this world who will be "reverse centaurs" and bend those fucking paperclips because they need to eat.I also am not worried about a "singularity", but about something much more stupid.
(DIR) Post #AxTHCXBIjIcZkOykds by criffer@mastodon.social
2025-08-23T11:23:42Z
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@jwz @glyph We already have quasi-autonomous entities that while not being sentient act as if they had intelligence in the single-minded furtherance of maximising an output, to the detriment of all else.They’re called corporations.
(DIR) Post #AxTHCXlSYrXpYXtd0C by lxo@snac.lx.oliva.nom.br
2025-08-23T19:34:18Z
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yup. as first argued in https://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/#singularCC: @jwz@mastodon.social @glyph@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AxTJM4wMmcVQxpfjuq by StefanEJones@dice.camp
2025-08-23T18:04:35Z
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@jameshowell @glyph 1997. I-Con SF convention on the SUNY Stony Brook campus.We put Vernor Vinge and grey eminence of SF Frederik Pohl on a panel about the Singularity.Before it started, Pohl asked "What is hell is the Singularity?"I filled him in.Right there, in front of Vinge:"What a load of crap. Here's what's going to happen. We're going to burn through our resources, ruin the environment, civilization will collapse, and the survivors will despise us."